[bbftx]

Demoed the SmartSwing "Intelligent" Driver and related software yesterday. The device provides an incredible wealth of info about your swing:
Plane and path back and down, tempo, shaft position and orientation, clubhead info, position at the top of the swing, max speed and where it happens, speed at impact, and on and on. I was also excited to see it gives you shaft lean angle at impact, approach path angle, and degrees of ascending or descending path at impact.

The software allows you to "see" each swing, like a video, but with LOTS more positions than a 30 fps video. You can step through many more "frames" than any consumer video cam can capture.
You can size a silhouette golfer to match your height and setup position. This is wonderful for playback. Your attention is drawn to the club --- you see clubhead path and orientation, along with a color-highlighted shaft position during each part of the swing. And you get this from 3 views simultaneously -- above the golfer, face on, and down the line. You'd need three videocams and lots of setup to do that!

I've taken video of myself, so I know how I look. The Smartswing playback looked just like my swing, so I'm very confident in the data and results the device reported.
This is a very sophisticated product, and I perceive the data accuracy to be much higher than any other consumer swing analyzer.


Since you can take it out on the course and record actual swings during your round, it seems more useful than just about any other swing analyzer.

It worked every time I hit with it. No swings where it failed to collect accurate data. The club senses when it is in address position and gives you a soft, confirming beep. It ignores waggles. After you swing, it confirms data collection by giving you a little ta-da-ta-da series of quiet beeps. The circuitry that goes inside the top of the shaft weighs about 30 grams.

I'm getting a retrofit to my existing driver, but I almost bought the SmartSwing driver. It's a heavier club and has a higher swingweight than my current TaylorMade R580XD so it felt different and I decided against it. But it seems pretty hot and relatively forgiving. An easy 88 mph swing produced 210 yard carry. (Consistent data from watching where the balls landed compared to what the software estimated.) I'm sure I could get a lot more distance out of the Smartswing driver after getting used to the club and swinging harder.

Cons? A few. They only can use one grip right now --- it's a nice Winn, standard size grip. They say Golf Pride is in the works.
Second, you have to hit a ball -- it doesn't seem to work on practice swings. Not sure why they chose to do this, but the software won't let you "analyze" a swing without ball impact. I'm not too concerned about these minor points.
Another caution; some people might need help analyzing the data and visual info this thing provides. There was another fellow there when I was, and you could tell he felt a bit overwhelmed with all the data SmartSwing spews out. He asked if the SmartSwing guy came along with the product if he bought one. There are a few pros here in Austin using the device for teaching; I'm sure there will be many more jumping on this bandwagon in time.

The price is a little steep --- $699 if you have it installed in your own club. Didn't stop me --- I had my credit card out pretty quick after my demo

If you want to read the company's info about their products:
http://www.smartswinggolf.com